SMALL STONES' KASPA AND FIONA

Kaspa & Fiona have taken over my blog for today, because they need our help.

They are both on a mission to help the world connect with the world through writing. They are also getting married on Saturday the 18th of June.

For their fantasy wedding present, they are asking people across the world to write them a ‘small stone’ and post it on their blogs or on Facebook or Twitter.

A small stone is a short piece of observational writing – simply pay attention to something properly and then write it down. Find out more about small stones here.

If you’re willing to help, we’d love you to do things:

1) Re-post this blog on your own blog any time before June the 18th and give your readers a chance to hear about what we’re doing. You can simply copy and paste the text, or you can find the html here.

2) Write us a small stone on our wedding day whilst we’re saying our vows and eating cake, post it on your blog, and send it to us.

You can find out more about our project at our website, Wedding Small Stones, and you can also read our blog at A River of Stones.

We also have a July challenge coming soon, when we’ll be challenging you to notice one thing every day during July and write it down.

Thank you for listening, and we hope we’ll be returning from our honeymoon to an inbox crammed with small stones, including yours.

Kaspa & Fiona

GUERILLA GIRLS and me

A few years ago I went to a meeting of Guerilla Girls in NYC, it was a networking meeting for theater women. I don't remember a lot about the meeting. I don't live in NYC. But I do remember the talk about the inequity between women and men playwrights being produced across the country. There were some stickers available that a person could plaster on theater walls or bathroom walls etc. Instead, I vowed to contact my local theater companies every year and either congratulate them on having women playwrights in their lineup, or let them know of my disappointment and ask them to consider to include more women next year. I think the only difference I am making is that I am making a nuisance of myself in my own backyard, and pissing people off. Is this what an activist does?
I am like everyone else, I want to be liked. On top of that, I am a playwright. It is not in my best interest to piss off theater heads. What the hell. No wonder the Guerilla Girls had stickers available. I could have remained anonymous, but I thought I was being courageous. A real woman. If there were a pack of people -- women AND men -- talking to theater companies about this very real disparity, then maybe I wouldn't be a thorn in someone's side. As it is, I'm an irritant. This is distressing. What is the answer? Just give up? What would Susan B. Anthony do if she were the only one?

The Stillwater Review, Poetry Reading

I have a poem coming out in the inaugural issue of THE STILLWATER REVIEW. There will be a reading and book launch on Friday, June 10 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Atrium of Sussex County Community College. That's in New Jersey, and I'm in Oregon, so I won't be there, but lots of wonderful poets will, so go if you can. Buy the book if you can. Later there will be a smaller version available online. I'll let you know about that when I know about it.
My poem is "Mom's White Strapless Dress: A 50's Memoir." Look for it when you pick up your copy. Thanks for your support.

SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT: WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS GETTING PRODUCED

I wish I could also say "right here in River City ..." but not quite yet. However, there are companies in the US who are making it their mission to create equity, and Halcyon Theatre in Chicago is one of them. They are offering a festival of FULL PRODUCTIONS, of five women playwrights this summer. Go here and see: http://www.halcyontheatre.org/mission
This isn't their first year to produce women's plays either, but this year they went out and got five women to write plays inspired by other women's plays (from the past). Who wouldn't love to see that? If you are in or around Chicago, go see. If you can make the trip, go do. If you have funds you can share to support Halcyon's mission, please do that. Support women playwrights however you can, please. Right now, women are being produced only 20% compared to men. We are aiming for 50% by 2020. Anything you can do to support that is much appreciated. Talk to your theatre companies. Let them know you appreciate seeing plays by women, want to see plays by women, then show up when they present plays by women. Women write every kind of play. My last play is "The Godmother." It's about the mob in Kansas City during the Prohibition. In case you thought she was a fairy godmother in a silver coach with white horses. Just saying. Now get outa here you crazy kids.

Migraines

As a long-time migraineur, I'm only beginning to come to terms with this debilitating condition. I have these headaches as often as two or three times a week, month in, month out, and have had for many years. They became worse in my 50's, until I was forced to retire from a combination of migraine and heart disease, but once I retired the heart disease became manageable (after a couple of years). The migraines continue to be so bad that there is no way I could hold down a job, however.
These days, since the beginning of 2011, I've decided to try to write a poem for every migraine I experience. Most days I can't write the poem on the day I'm having it. I've managed a few, but usually the pain is too severe or the nausea, or both. Today is another day after ... I feel groggy, headachy, less than mentally sharp, and really wish I could just stay in bed another 16 hours. But I have a life I have to attend to. So I soldier on.
There are millions of us, doing the same. Most of us are women because more women than men are stricken. I have tried every thing I've ever heard of except for having nails driven into my skull, and I might yet try that. I learned biofeedback, I try every herbal that I hear of, I take supplements regularly, I take preventive meds, and use painkiller meds only on the day of, and never more than 2x a week, no matter how many days I get a headache. I've tried acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, juicing, exercise, hypnosis, crying, laughing, and many Western meds. Prayer and meditation. Now I write.
Writing has been my answer for everything else in my life, why not for migraines? It may not cure them, but I don't see how it can hurt. What do you do, fellow migraineurs? Retreat? Medical marijuana (that I haven't tried)? Ice baths? What?

BLOGSPLASH

You might want to consider joining the blogsplash of these poets who publish "small stones" for their upcoming wedding. Instructions are here:
http://www.fionarobyn.com/wedding/blogsplash.html

INVERT SUGAR

Ever have your mom or gramma or other loving relative say to you: gimme some sugar? Maybe they don't do that in the North, but where I come from, we say it all the time. My grandma and grandpa, my favorite aunts and uncles were always after my sugar. Fond memories.
When migraines took over my life in 1999, yes they did, they took over my life, I eventually had to change every aspect of my daily living. In 2000, I went on the elimination diet and discovered that my main trigger for migraines was CORN and all corn products. Wow, are there a bunch of products that have corn in them, that do not sound like corn. Invert sugar is one of those products.
Invert also means homosexual. Did you know that? It's another old-fashioned word, like using "sugar" to mean love. I first heard it used when I was ten years old and read Radcliffe Hall's "The Well of Loneliness." Yes, I was precocious. I read "The Well of Loneliness" at 10. I read everything I could get my hands on, and that happened to be in our bookcase. And then later on, I turned out to be an invert myself. Whoa. Do you think it was the book? or the sugar? I think it was the DNA.
So. Putting the words together: Invert Sugar, sounds like lesbian love to me. I'm giving that title to a mini-chapbook of my lesbian poems. Take that, CORN industry. :)